Including the New York Premiere of battle hymns by David Lang
James Bagwell, Conductor
Ted Sperling, Director
Edward Barnes, Producer
The Collegiate Chorale announces its 2014 Spring Benefit on May 15, 2014 at 6:30pm at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum Pier 86, 12th Ave. & 46th Street in New York, NY. The event will honor the Veteran Artist Program, and will feature the New York premiere of David Lang’s battle hymns to benefit The Collegiate Chorale’s artistic and education programs.
The evening will start at 6:30pm with a cocktail reception on the Portside Terrace, followed by the 7:30pm concert of David Lang’s battle hymns in Hangar 3, and will conclude with a seated dinner and live auction in the Great Hall with a stunning view of the Hudson River at 8:30 pm. Attire is festive and Benefit tickets are available from $1,000 to $1,500. (Benefit tables and $500 tickets are sold out.) For more information, please email Mariane Lemieux at mlemieux@collegiatechorale.org or call 646-435-9052.
VETERAN ARTIST PROGRAM
The Collegiate Chorale is thrilled to salute the mission of VAP and to include veteran artists in its production of battle hymns. Through networking, mentorships, and collaborations with the performing arts community, the Veteran Artist Program fosters and promotes artists of all kinds who have returned from military service in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the words of BR McDonald, founding director of VAP:
So many people think that the military experience is at odds with the creative arts world – It’s not. As a veteran, I don’t have to give up one world for another. The time is NOW for veterans to reshape the arts in America and to own the discussion about veteran experience in the mainstream creative arts community.
LIVE AUCTION
The evening’s live auction will be hosted by the extraordinary Roger Rees and will feature select and exclusive packages as well as opportunities to sponsor Side-by-Side students and veteran artists to travel and sing with The Collegiate Chorale at the 2014 Verbier Festival in Switzerland. The Side-by-Side program offers talented high school singers the chance to rehearse, perform, and tour with the ensemble. In 2014, The Collegiate Chorale celebrates the 10th anniversary of this life-changing program.
BENEFIT CO-CHAIRS
Page Ashley, Susan Baker and Michael Lynch, Lois Conway, Antonia and George Grumbach, Christie Salomon and Rich Lombard, Adèle and John Talty
CORPORATE CO-CHAIR
Aon
battle hymns
one drum, 200 voices…
A soldier’s letter to his wife, a speech by Abraham Lincoln, lyrics to Stephen Foster songs – these are the words of battle hymns, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang’s innovative choral exploration of the feelings of people in times of war. On May 15, 2014, The Collegiate Chorale will present the New York Premiere of this unusual and haunting work, performed within the expansive Hangar Deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, a setting rich in the remembrance of wars served.
Written for large choral forces and one solo drum, battle hymns is ideally realized by the top-flight Collegiate Chorale, joined by members of the Veteran Artist Program and the Manhattan Girls Chorus. The combined 200 voices will sing out in unison, counterpoint, and multi-layered polyphony, to create a unique site-specific experience inside the walls of this hallowed aircraft carrier. Modern music merges with military memory – a one-of-a-kind encounter.
Passionate, prolific, and complicated, composer David Lang embodies the restless spirit of invention. Lang is at the same time deeply versed in the classical tradition and committed to music that resists categorization, constantly creating new forms. Musical America’s 2013 Composer of the Year and recipient of Carnegie Hall’s Debs Composer’s Chair for 2013-2014, Lang is one of America’s most performed composers. Many of his works resemble each other only in the fierce intelligence and clarity of vision that inform their structures. His catalogue is extensive, and his opera, orchestra, chamber and solo works are by turns ominous, ethereal, urgent, hypnotic, unsettling and very emotionally direct. Much of his work seeks to expand the definition of virtuosity in music – even the deceptively simple pieces can be fiendishly difficult to play and require incredible concentration by musicians and audiences alike.
The mission of The Collegiate Chorale is to enrich its audiences through innovative programming and exceptional performances of a broad range of vocal music featuring a premier choral ensemble. Founded in 1941 by the legendary conductor Robert Shaw, The Chorale has established a preeminent reputation for its interpretations of the traditional choral repertoire, vocal works by American composers, and rarely heard operas-in-concert, as well as for commissions and premieres of new works by today’s most exciting creative artists.
For more information about this concert and The Collegiate Chorale, visit www.collegiatechorale.org. For information on the Spring Benefit please visit www.collegiatechorale.org/support/special-events.
